In the past few weeks I’ve been through four Muslim countries and my only complaint really is the call to players when your hotel is near a mosque. This morning I was awakened around 4 am as I have been many times over the last few weeks and I’m not going to miss that, usually at my house it will be the cats or the dogs making a racket on the odd occasion or sometimes the birds will get up too early if there is a full moon.
The food, well I have not enjoyed much of the food I’ve come across and I’ll be looking forward to eating at home. Many of the flavours and more so feeling satisfied afterwards was a rare experience. A couple of meals in Egypt and the food in Wadi Rum was good. I had a couple of good meals in Greece but I also felt the fat attaching itself to my waist line. The Pudding Shop food in Istanbul I think was the best, the snow outside also helped me to enjoy the soup and the Goulash and I didn’t get that fatty feeling afterwards.
In Greece at breakfast there was always salad and cold meat on the breakfast platter but I need more than this to start my day. I’m not sure why they say that the Mediterranean diet is good for you, I didn’t like it and I would rather lose a few years of life to enjoy my food a little more.
I didn’t have much fruit and I’ll change that when I get home. Yoghurt and almonds and good coffee, Greece was the best place for coffee and not too expensive.
Qatar is not a place I’ll return to unless I transit the country, there’s not too much of interest here and everything is expensive, apart from some of the electronics.
And on the subject of Qatar, I tried to talk to someone about the compensation due to me because of the initial flight delays, no one can help me. I need to contact customer service by email they tell me and the real customer service in the airport can’t help me, they can’t even send an email to anyone to ask them on my behalf, why I’ve had no response for the past month.
And they have won the best airline for 7 years!!!!!
I will be composing another long email on the coming days.
Is definitely worth coming to see, this is a proper museum with artifacts from times gone by. There was an interesting side exhibition on Baghdad showing what life was like before the many troubles came to disrupt life as they knew it.
I don’t think many in the west realise just how much mathematics, science, planetary movements and the like had its birthplace in the Islamic world only to be used by many famous people like Copernicus or Galileo for that matter as a basis for there findings and further studies, but a lot of the ground work began here.
The past few weeks has been a mixture of many emotions. The journey got off to a bad start with the flight delays and it seemed such an effort just to get to my first destination. My mood is not good.
When I woke up on my first morning I just sat there soaking up the moment whilst I was waiting for Hadama to bring me breakfast. It was cold which I didn’t expect but what was nice was the peace and quiet of my surroundings after many chaotic days.
In hindsight I feel that going to Aswan was maybe not such a good choice as the first stop because I was gently eased into the way of life in Egypt and I think that a smack in the face baptism of fire welcoming would have been better to prepare me for the weeks ahead.
Egypt has so much to offer the traveller however there are many individuals that will cross your path that will begin to shatter your love of what’s on offer. You are just a piece of shite and you attract copious amounts of flies and dung beetles to your orbit and every one of them want to feed on you. I was not prepared for this onslaught and I was way too polite and should have told many of these flies to just fuck off.
I didn’t get really ripped off but I did pay a wee bit over the odds a couple of times, but because Egypt was so cheap the amounts were small. All of these flies and dung beetles blindside you to the good folk that cross your path and that’s sad. If there’s a next time then I’ll be better prepared.
The history of Egypt is staggering and if you have the opportunity to go you just have too. What’s been left behind for us to marvel at is breathtaking and it’s just a shame that many of the visitors don’t take the time to savour the moment through their own eyes, instead they’d rather see it for a split second on the screen of their phone before it’s sent to the ether to be cast before swine.
Jordan was next on the agenda and it was great to have arrived in a country that felt more civilised and the chaos of the last few weeks melted away ever so slowly as the days passed.
Petra was the highlight of this part of the journey and day one was spectacular. I wandered around for eight hours and met three young travellers along the way. A great first day and I was already planning the next two days.
Day 2
I went to Little Petra to walk the track that runs to the Monastery. I got off to a good start but after about two hours I realised something was wrong. After checking the map I had the choice of two paths and I chose the more difficult of the two.
I ran into a few dead ends where the only way was down and possibly it would have been the last thing I would have done. After what seemed like a lifetime and many scratches from the small trees that grew here I made it back to the beginning of the path. I looked at the time and it was only just after 1pm, so I thought that’s still time to get to the Monastery.
This time the map and me were in sinc and all was well. I veered off the track slightly and so to correct it I made my way down this steep gully full of loose rocks but every so often I could see the foot prints of a previous traveller and so I was confident that I was doing fine and I was taking care to place every step due to the nature of the terrain.
I came across a section where I had no choice but to drop down about two metres. I eased towards it and looked for some holds. I placed my left foot into a depression and my right into another and got a hand hold and prepared for my next move, however before I even took a breath gravity took over and I was flying through the air.
I landed with a thump on my back. My right leg came clattering down and it screamed. I scrambled to get a hold but I was still. I lay there trying to figure out what had happened and to survey the damage, checking body parts to see what the damage was. To my surprise there was almost no claret but my right foot, my ankle in particular was shouting at me. I moved my toes and then tried to move it up and down and then side to side, everything worked thankfully.
I sat up and found my phone, the screen was cracked but it had survived. I looked back at where I’d come from and still couldn’t understand what the hell happened. I tried to stand which I could do but now my ankle was beginning to complain. I moved to a shady spot and drank water. I realised I was shaking. I’m still a fair way up this gully and I’m lucky I’ve only dropped a couple of metres.
As I eat, I’m looking to see how to get out. Fear is genuine now because I can’t really believe what’s going on. After a while I realise I need to pull myself together and find a way out. I try getting back up the way I came but the holds available to me are precarious at best and I just can’t reach the one I need. My only choice is to go down to the bottom and look for a way out.
I re-tie my shoes and make them as tight as possible. I’m favouring my left side and doing my best to not fall again. As I reach the bottom I can see there are maybe three options. The first is through soft sand and between rocks but this comes to a dead end. My second choice looks promising and as I proceed I hear again the sound of the bells from the goats and I also notice that there is a fair bit of goat shit on the path, a good sign?
As I exit onto a small plateau I can see further down on the valley floor, a four wheel drive and some tents, civilisation. The goats come around the mountain so to speak and one of two look bemused as they cast their eyes on this bedraggled human. I video them as they walk on. I hear someone shouting at me, telling me to come down. A young girl was waving at me to come down to where she was. It’s still a bit difficult so I ease my way down to her and I could still come a cropper if I rush now. If I’d only found the path the goats had used.
We sit together and she asks me what happened and I tell her. I’m so relieved not to be alone and I finally feel safe. She offers to take me back to where I can get a taxi to Petra. It’s about a kilometre and with every step my ankle is complaining and my limp is becoming more pronounced. My young guide slowly walks and turns every so often to see how I’m doing. We share small talk, the usual questions,
Where are you from?
How old are you?
Are you on your own, married?
What’s your name?
At the hotel I grab a towel and soak it in cold water and then wrap it around my ankle and then I sit there. I prod and touch my foot to assess the damage. I’m sure I haven’t broken anything and I continue with the cold towel treatment.
I hobble down to reception and briefly explain the problem and they send out to the chemist for a bandage and cream which I put on as soon as it arrives. I put it on fairly tight but then I have to undo it because I feel my foot is about to explode and my toes look almost double in size. I strap up my ankle again but not so tight and then I try to get some sleep. I can’t believe just how quickly I’ve become incapacitated and with each step I have to hold onto something to steady myself.
When I wake in the morning I’m hoping that it’s all just a bad dream and I can get on with things as normal but reality smacks me in the face when I look at my foot, ankle and lower calf. The swelling has continued overnight and I realise that I’m not going to be able to do much over the coming days if not weeks. I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m at a loss to know what the future holds and what about the rest of my trip, I’m only half way through. It’s at this moment I should have seen a doctor but I didn’t…. Maybe my recovery would have been much better.
I’ve strapped up my ankle and I put on my boots once more and find that this is the best way for me to move around. Getting to breakfast was quite the challenge and instead of bouncing down the stairs I had to settle for the lift. Everything is an effort. I’m not sure if I can continue my journey.
I need money, so I head down to the cash exchange which is a five minute walk away unless you’ve been hobbled.
I have no choice but to stay close to home, my next stop is the desert so that will give me a few days to recover and then I’ll leave Jordan in a week and by then I should be out running marathons.
After a couple of days in the desert I managed to walk down to the spot where you can watch the sunset. It was only about 400m but I managed to walk there and back in a normal fashion with very little distress, this is good news. I really enjoyed Wadi Rum and I would love to go back and combine it with a few other locations and I’d hire a car.
Aqaba was to be three days of rest after all this hiking and walking that I should have done but it served to let me rest my foot a little longer so that when I arrived in Istanbul I’d at least be able to walk everywhere I wanted and this was more of less the case. As long as I wore my boots and kept my ankle supported I managed not too bad although I did walk a bit too far because I felt that it was becoming easier with less difficulty.
It was snowing in Istanbul and I just didn’t have enough clothes, I’d been smart enough to leave them at home and bring more summer clothes because Google assured me that the average temperature would be X, but I did not factor in a global warming component.
I enjoyed the food and the culture trip I went on and would highly recommend going there even although everyone looks dodgy. The Pudding Shop restaurant was a life saver here with its ever changing menu.
Mixed feelings about Greece, Santorini was OK an if I could have walked would have been so much better. I didn’t go there for the sunset or the beaches, however there are some pretty places here worth seeing.
Athens was my next stop and of course the Parthenon is what you come to see. I was targeted by a group of coloured individuals as I exited the metro heading to my hotel. I didn’t know it at the time but they had marked the back of my jacket to let the hunters see their prey.
I saw at least three of them there may have been more and they got wind of that, although one of them an Indian guy was quite persistent but he eventually fucked off because I stopped outside a restaurant and waited till there were more folk going my way. I don’t feel I did anything wrong this time but I guess when they see an old dog limping and bedraggled looking, well I guess I was fair game.
I’ll go back to Greece and chase the culture and heritage on some of the islands and I think and I would return to Athens as there is so much to see.
Qatar is the final destination, I bought a new phone… A Xiaomi phone which is about $200 cheaper here than Australia but then the stop over has cost me around $600 or maybe more. That’s brains fur ye!
Quite the adventure I’ve had. It’s been a long time since I’ve been travelling as much as this and I’ve enjoyed most of it.
I’m looking forward to getting back to the hoose, getting life back to normal, not having to pack my suitcase, eating good healthy food again and to lose the weight that I’ve put on which must be at least 2kg. Mind you this is not just down to the bad diet but to the lack of exercise, if I’d been able to walk everywhere then I would have been in better shape.
I’ll soon get rid of the weight and I’m going to see my doctor the day after I return just so that he can check out my ankle and help me to get that back to 100%. I still don’t have full flexibility and it can be slightly uncomfortable if I am walking on a slight incline where my foot is having to compensate for the right to left aspects. Going upstairs is no problem but coming down is still a bit tricky. So not all is well but I still feel extremely lucky to have been able to continue with my trip.
I still have nightmares about the fall and I can visualise every rock and piece of goat shit on that trail because it has been etched into my brain and I’m sure as long as that is not a distant memory it will hopefully protect me from myself.
I thought I’d better go and check out the national museum because for one, the architecture of the museum itself is impressive. I enjoy going to museums and have been to many over the last few weeks and you can learn more about the country you are in.
However the price tag to get into this museum nearly knocked me over, 99 Qatari Rials… I think this is criminal for such a wealthy country, mind you they said that this will allow you access to another two museums….. what if I don’t want to visit the other two… The museum is modern and vast although I feel that it was bit sparse when it came to exhibits of a tangible nature. So many of the walls were being used to project images of Qatari life over the years and you can sit down and soak up these images and listen to locals recanting life as they knew it…if I want to watch a movie I’ll do it at home, I’m not interested in going to a museum where around 60% is digital content, very disappointed and not worth the money.
Before I went here I went to the Marine Promenade to see some crazy buildings. The new Fairmont Hotel is stunning, I might have to stay here next time.
I got an Uber to the bus station, I had two credit cards with me today. I must have walked too far yesterday because I have a twinge on the left side of my foot, so I’m not going to do too much today.
At Corinth there is a very large archaeological site but I think I’ll give it a miss, I don’t believe that there is anything really specific that needs to be seen and so for that reason I’ll go as far as the canal.
I have this image in my head of a very large ship heading through the canal and there is very little room either side for error. It was cut through sold rock and the sides are slightly angled for structural reasons but I think that this is a marvel of the modern age.
The ancient mariners had thought about constructing a canal here but it was not until 1891 that work finally got underway and it was first used in 1893.
The sun stayed in bed today which made Athens Baltic. I slowly climbed up to the top of the hill trying to be as gentle on my ankle as possible because this slight incline is stretching bits that I don’t want stretched.
It was busy and the walk through the streets was pleasant, some of the buildings are amazing. The Parthenon seemed to be a lot smaller than I thought it would be. On TV it always seemed so big but in reality, although impressive I maybe expected more. I’ve seen so many ancient structures on this trip and maybe I’m a bit worn out, mind you such a structure on top of this huge edifice is no mean feat. To build this complex of structures is still quite amazing and when you put it in context of the time period it was built then you really need to sit back and be impressed.
The next day the sun came out and I decided to go to the Corinth Canal, which I’ve always marvelled at. I got to the bus station and my travel card would not work on the ancient card machine and the atm didn’t like it either so it was back to plan b, museums.
The Archaeological Museum was very good, but it seemed that every school in the district was told I’d be there and sent every child possible. Some of the exhibits were off limits because of this but there was still plenty to look at.
When I finally made it out of the metro and back to the sunshine I stopped to orientate myself with Google so that I can get to my hotel. Immediately a black guy approaches and tells me that he likes my style, the same routine that they played in Italy.
I turn on my heels as I’ve found where I need to go and head to the main road. Another black guy is there and he watches me struggle with the big case and back pack. When I reach the other side I take the first right and continue on my way. The second black guy passed me and crossed the street and gave a piece of paper to an Indian guy who within twenty seconds asks if I speak English? I ignore him and continue along the street. The black dude turns right and disappears.
I stop at a busy intersection to check Google and then I’m on my way. The Indian guy reappears and passed me. I look around and its just me and him. After a few yards he tries to engage me in conversation and I ignore and walk on, I’m only about a minute away from my Hotel and there are people coming towards me. He turns off and I don’t see him again.
After I check in I go to my room and remove my jacket only to find it had been sprayed with some kind of, I don’t know. I go to the shower to try and remove it and that’s easier said than done.
I’m glad to be leaving Santorini, there’s not much to do here considering I can’t hike anywhere and other than that it’s a small place out of season.
Getting to Athens will get me back on the culture and history trail once more, but it will be good to have more options and I’m hoping that this hotel will be better than the last. The Aquarius Hotel was booked because of location and price point but I was not really happy with the choice for the money spent.
It only had a hand shower which I think is fairly primitive in this day and age. This also made it a bit scary when I’m trying to have a shower on a very slippy surface with a dodgy ankle.
The room was cold and vast and not designed for winter, it might have been more pleasant in the height of summer but just now it was uncomfortable. With the aircon set to max I still had to wear several layers.
For breakfast you had to make your way outside every morning into the elements to get to reception and then ask them to prepare breakfast which was then brought to your room. Breakfast was simple and passable. There was a small table and chairs but again functional not comfortable.
A nice comfy chair similar to the one the Spanish Inquisition use would have been nice. There was no kettle, I had to ask for one. There was no water provided. The reception had a note saying open from 8am till 5pm however this was not the case, more often than not it was closed and I had to contact the hotel via WhatsApp and then it would be a fair bit of time before they returned.
This “Hotel” was, well I’m not sure what it was. I guess you pay a premium to stay in Santorini and this is what a hotel might look like but I was not impressed at all. My accommodation in the desert was much the same as here although slightly smaller.
I came here to see the blue domed houses and churches hugging the cliffs of this volcanic island and it was good to see this, but Santorini for me has not much else to offer…
I came to Kamari this morning for something to do and one of those things was to visit the old ruins of Thera. It’s only a 3.5 km walk but it’s all up hill via a zig zag road that winds its way up the very steep mountain. Even if it were a 100% fit this would be quite the challenge and as my ankle is a bit niggly this morning I ain’t going to even try.
I wasn’t sure just how steep it was but as I look at it I know that I ain’t got what it takes.
So I’ll just have to kill an hour or so until the bus arrives to take me back to Fira.
On more than one occasion over the passed weeks I find myself fighting Google maps and this has been really obvious here on Santorini, my inner compass is still well and truly embedded in the southern hemisphere. It’s just really bazaar the feeling you get when you look at the map and it just feels wrong. I look at the sea, I look at the map and then I decide which way to go and then I check the map and sure enough I’m 180° oot….. Go figure!!
I got the early bus to Oia, here you will find the many picture postcard images from Santorini. The stunning blue roof on top of the chalk white buildings. The place was deserted which I found very appealing, I think summer would be mental.
Most of the businesses are closed but for me that’s just fine, I had no intention of buying anything, I just wanted to come and see what all the fuss was about. It is a very pretty place and I’m sure living in one of the cliff hugging houses would be just grand. The downside of staying here is that there is no easy way to get your luggage or things to and from civilisation, the narrow passageways and copious amount of stairs certainly look pretty but would soon wear you out. Nevertheless I spent a pleasant hour or so just wandering around and the bonus of winter is that there are no people.
After I got off the bus in Fira I headed straight for lunch and had no choice but to get another bucket of red wine to get me through the day.
